COLUMBIA, Mo. – “Place-based identity” is the idea that people form a sense of place and establish connections to a geographical area. Often, place-based struggles arise when that sense of home is threatened by development or undermined by non-local actors.

Assistant Teaching Professor Joseph Erb has invited a variety of indigenous artists, filmmakers, leaders, academics, and people who deal with tribal sovereignty to campus to celebrate the contributions and achievements of indigenous people.

Assistant Teaching Professor Joseph Erb likes to ask his students, “Whose land are we on?” In the three semesters Erb has been with the College of Arts and Science’s digital storytelling program, he says not a single student has answered correctly.

MU Chancellor Alexander Cartwright and Provost Garnett Stokes recognized members of the faculty who have served the university for 25 years and announced a number of awards during a gala at the Reynolds Alumni Center Oct. 24. Four faculty members were named Curators’ Professors, the university’s highest and most prestigious rank, including three from the College of Arts and Science:

The University of Missouri Board of Curators has named three professors in the College of Arts and Science as Curators' Professors, the university’s highest and most prestigious rank. These professorships acknowledge outstanding scholars with established reputations from the entire University of Missouri system. The three professors were recognized by Chancellor Alexander Cartwright Tuesday evening at a reception at the Reynolds Alumni Center.

Prof. Bruce Bartholow and his colleagues at the University of Colorado wondered whether pairing beer brands with logos from their universities would increase students’ brain responses to those brands, and whether the magnitude of these brain responses might predict students’ alcohol use.

Marketers and advertisers routinely try to affiliate their products with U.S. colleges and universities. For instance, cellular network providers strike deals that allow them to become the “official wireless carrier” of some university or other.

Haley Horstman examined how men also have to cope with their partner’s miscarriage and how married couples can use communicated perspective-taking to cope.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Anywhere from 10 to 25 percent of clinically recognized pregnancies end in loss, according to the American Pregnancy Association, making miscarriage a socially significant health issue. Often, women experience profound grief, guilt and depression straining a committed relationship. A recent University of Missouri study examined how men also have to cope with their partner’s miscarriage and how married couples can use “communicated perspective-taking” to cope.

Graduate student Alexander Myers uses a glove box to safely handle chemicals while conducting research. A glove box is a sealed box filled with an inert gas such as nitrogen gas. A lot of the compounds Myers works with are air and water sensitive, so he uses the glove box to prevent chemical reactions with air and water.

A fourth-year graduate student in the Department of Chemistry hopes his research eventually will lead to solutions for dealing with nuclear waste. Alexander Myers has been working with Associate Professor Justin Walensky in exploring the fundamentals of actinide chemistry. Actinides comprise the very bottom row of the periodic table, and all of the elements on the bottom row are radioactive.

“For more than 50 years, Moore's Law has reigned supreme. The observation that the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles roughly every two years has set the pace for our modern digital revolution—making smartphones, personal computers and current supercomputers possible. But Moore's Law is slowing.

Scott Braudis, Joel Sager, Arts and Science Interim Dean Pat Okker, and SVS Director Jo Stealey pose in front of one of Stealey’s works, Book: Chapter One – Home at Last during the official launch of the new School of Visual Studies Sept. 27 at the Sager Braudis Galley in downtown Columbia.

The College of Arts and Science’s new School of Visual Studies (SVS) was officially launched Sept. 27 during the school’s inaugural event at Sager Braudis Gallery in downtown Columbia. MU Provost Garnett Stokes, Arts and Science Interim Dean Pat Okker, and SVS Director Jo Stealey each spoke at the ceremony, which featured an exhibit of artistic works by faculty and students in the new school.

John Wigger’s new book, PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire, chronicles the incredible success and humiliating downfall of America’s first Christian talk show hosts, and considers the couple’s impact on religion in America today.

MU history professor John Wigger says if someone developed a television series based on the rise and fall of televangelist Jim Bakker and his wife, Tammy Faye, audiences would have a tough time believing the story because it seems so ludicrous. A pair of small-time faith healers parlays a puppet show into a multimillion-dollar media empire, builds a Christian theme park at the height of their success, and then watches it all blow up.

The Cadet Band on the steps of Jesse Hall, Savitar, University of Missouri, 1896

Earlier this year, Arianna Soldati was stuck in the Syracuse airport filled with grumpy and flustered passengers during a long flight delay. Luckily, she had a bag full of volcanic rocks. Soldati took the opportunity to lighten the mood and entertain her fellow travelers by teaching them about her passion — volcanoes.

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Enrollment at the University of Missouri rose slightly higher than expected in fourth-week census numbers released today while the campus continued to log near-record retention rates. Total enrollment is 30,870.

MU welcomed 4,134 freshman this fall—up from the 4,009 expected based on preliminary numbers released in May. That’s more first-year students, including more Missourians, than any other university in the state.

Associate Professor Rabia Gregory recently received a $30,000 grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology & Religion to develop a more reflective approach to teaching about religious diversity on campus and across the state.

Rabia Gregory, an associate professor of religious studies at MU, says certain things come up in the classroom during the first couple weeks of the semester so often as to be predictable. The department teaches about religion from a secular perspective, but Gregory says that is a perspective that few students are exposed to before leaving home for college.

The University of Missouri Museum of Anthropology will reopen to the public and begin normal operations on Saturday, Sept. 16. Museum hours will be Tuesday-Friday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., 12 – 4 p.m. on the weekends, and closed Mondays. The public is invited to a small event on Friday, Sept. 15 at 5:30 p.m. to mark the museum’s reopening.

Sarah Ward says her latest research tries to ascertain how people arrive at their judgments of situations that seem morally wrong to many people but do not actually involve harm or victims.

People who strongly trust their gut instincts tend to make snap judgments about whether something is morally wrong or not, and they do not change their point of view even after thinking about the issue. That’s the conclusion of a series of studies conducted by Sarah Ward, a doctoral candidate in social/ personality psychology.

The College of Arts and Science has built a proud tradition of honoring alumni and friends through its annual alumni awards program. The success of the program is largely due to the assistance of friends and alumni who provide us with nominations on behalf of deserving individuals.

The college is seeking nominations for candidates in each of the following categories:

Distinguished Alumni Award

Associate Professor of Philosophy Phillip Robbins has been working in the area of experimental philosophy, which employs the tools of empirical social science to investigate how ordinary people, with no special training in philosophy, think about philosophical issues.

Anyone who has seen an episode of Law & Order knows that if the defense attorney can successfully portray his client as a victim, jurors may be less inclined to assign blame to the defendant or may reduce the severity of the defendant’s punishment. Research confirms this is more than just a television trope—casting the perpetrator of a transgression as a victim tends to make them seem less blameworthy.

Researchers at the University of Missouri have now identified a framework that can help victims of domestic violence before, during and after disaster events.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Hurricane Harvey is the most recent natural disaster that has caused damage and destruction across many communities. When disasters strike an entire community, they do not affect all community members equally, and victims of domestic violence are often particularly vulnerable. Researchers at the University of Missouri have now identified a framework that can help victims of domestic violence before, during and after disaster events.

“I think this research draws attention to the importance of studying men and women in research, especially in studies of exercise and physiology,” says Jenna Lee, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychological Sciences.

New research from the Department of Psychological Sciences suggests physical activity can change diet preferences in males, but not females. Jenna Lee, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the lab of associate professor of psychological sciences Matt Will, says she was curious why we eat for pleasurable purposes instead of nutritional need.